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by writingstarsinthesky



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: After Apeture, Android Wheatley, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4772927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingstarsinthesky/pseuds/writingstarsinthesky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't much, but it also wasn't Apeture. That was something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

The house was old, and creaked, and half the time Chell had to hit the exposed pipe to get any semblance of hot water. Still, though, it was home, and it wasn’t Aperture. She had slept in worse.

She sits in her mattress– flat on the floor, she still hadn’t purchased any supports for her bed, nor more than a pillow and a basic blanket– and rubs at her eyes, her face in her hands. 

It was always the same dream.

Running, Running, Running through the halls of Aperture, discouragement beams burning over her, turrets singing in the distance, and Her, always  _Her,_ looming at her heels, reaching to grab her with her claws to tear her in two. she was enemy, the mad A.I. that had wanted her dead for years. 

And yet, she had let Chell go. 

Chell shakes her head, frowning and rolling off the mattress. It wouldn’t do to dwell on the conflicting actions of Her, the strangely tender song that had followed her release. She would go for a walk, like she always did after her nightmares. Maybe there were some scavengers to scare off, or maybe it was just a clear night.

The stairs creak as she goes down, but she doesn’t flinch like she did the first time she stepped on the old wood. There were no turrets here to fire bullets into her body, but she steps lightly anyway. 

It was hard to leave Aperture. While the events that had happened in the outside world had shocked her, the world was slowly being rebuilt. She lived in a small town, and the adults knew about the Combine, were lucky to be alive. No one would know better than the inhabitants of her town about mad A.I.s ruining things, but Chell kept it to herself. Leaving out the obvious speech issues, nobody knew how close she had come, multiple times, to dying at the hands of said AI. Nobody would understand that she didn’t belong.

The sound of the tv shocks her out of her reverie. She’s been so used to living on her own, she completely forgot she had a roommate now. 

Wheatley’s blue eyes turn to her, bright in the darkness even with the glow of the tv. “Luv? What are you doing out of bed? I know you’re a special human, but from what I know, humans aren’t meant to be bouncing around all willy nilly at all hours of the night.” He frowns a little, standing and facing her.

It was always a surprise to see him stand, as the android she had managed to download him into was over six feet tall and skinnier than she thought could be healthy. After toting around a ball about 3 feet in diameter, it was certainly a shock. 

She shakes her head at him, pulling her jacket closer around her. She can tell he’s studying her, his computer brain flipping through the files to try and identify her symptoms. Chell sighs softly, nodding at the back door and moving to it, ignoring Wheatley’s alarmed sound as she pulls on her work boots.

“Luv, I-I don’t mean to dampen your enthusiasm, but didn’t that man on the television say there were  _things_ of an unpleasant nature outside? And all of us were supposed to say all nice and safe, tucked up in our homes?” Wheatley is wringing his hands together, watching as she hefts an old gun onto her back. She isn’t really listening, to be honest; they had watched the news over dinner (Wheatley was getting surprisingly good at cooking) and he had gotten increasingly worried as the man had listed the types of monsters that could potentially kill them. It didn’t bother Chell much; she had lived there long enough to know it was mostly just a precaution. The gun was to make Wheatley feel better, and for scavengers. She pulls open the back door, stepping into the brisk cold. 

She crunches through the brittle grass, looking around her slightly overgrown backyard. It was a pretty sight, an open field with woods yards away, still in the moonlight. The only blight on the scene was a large scar in the ground, grass starting to grow in the crater Wheatley had made when his orbit had decided to so kindly decay above her home. She shakes her head at the memory, starting off. She had made her decision, and so far the only regrets she had about taking Wheatley in were the first few (destructive) months Wheatley used to learn how to be human.

Footsteps crunch behind her, and she turns. Wheatley is behind her, pale and shivering, barefoot in the grass. She blinks in her most deadpan manner, slowly lifting her brows. Wheatley flushes, shifting on his cold feet.

“W-Well, I couldn’t bloody well let you wander off into the big black nothingness alone, could I? Granted, if there was a monster out here, he wouldn’t have to do much; two chomps and I’d be a goner… Anyway, it’d still give you two chomps more than if I let you go by yourself. So if it’s a walk you fancy, then I guess you got yourself a companion. Don’t give me that look, lady!” He pleads at Chell’s less than impressed expression. “I promised to be there for you after you pulled me out of that big hole– which I’m still grateful for, by the way– a-and if that’s gotta be when you’re outside with the cold and the monsters, I’ll… I’ll try and give you two chomps to run. Even if it would be very painful.”

Chell stares at his pleading face, shaking her head. He really was a moron. She takes his arm in her warm hand, dragging him back home and doing her best to hide the smile on her face.

* * *

“Sorry, sorry luv!”

Chell makes a sour face as Wheatley’s cold feet snatch away from her legs for the third time, tucking under his body. She shakes her head and leans back on the couch, watching the infomercial cheerfully play on the tv.She can feel his eyes on her, a blue light in the corner of her vision. It was the fifth time he had looked her way, thinking her oblivious until she “caught” him in the act. 

She heaves a heavy sigh and rolls her head around to look at him, Wheatley quickly snapping his gaze away, twiddling his thumbs innocently as always. Rolling her eyes, she reaches over and pinches the android who had started whistling innocently. He gives a yelp at the simulated pain, turning to protest until he catches her stern gaze.

He coughs and drops his eyes to his lap, her direct gaze still too much for him to bear. “I was just thinking, lady, I never really found out why you were up and about. I think it might be good to know, I mean, so we don’t have to go out in the cold again.”

Chell snorts, but it’s in good nature. Just like Wheatley, caring with a slight undertone of self serving. 

Still, she frowns. The nightmare was what woke her, and she wanted to keep that fear clutched in her chest. People wouldn’t understand…

She looks at Wheatley, his blue eyes round with anxiety, and remembers seeing him trapped in one of Her claws, trembling in fear. 

Wheatley would understand.

She leans over, grabbing the pen and paper she makes Wheatley use in case she gets a call while she’s at work. She scribbles a few words down (she wasn’t great at writing so much, not after 300 years in suspension, more or less.),  _Her. There. Nightmare._

Wheatley takes the pad when she offers it, squinting a little through his glasses. When he looks back up at her, his face is creased in concern. 

“Oh, luv, I didn’t… I didn’t realize. I’m sorry. I mean, I don’t know why you’d dream about the place, we’re free! It was very traumatizing, I’m sure, anyone less resilient would’ve gone mad long ago, but not you, no no, I guess brain damage cancels out madness. Or maybe you were already mad? N-Not that that’s a bad thing! I find your madness to be quite nice,everything about you is nice really… i-in a very buddy buddy way! Haha, yeah, love our friendship, It’s great innit?”

Wheatley is babbling, and Chell gives an indulgent half smile. He really couldn’t control that mouth, could he? Wheatley is blushing, looking at her anxiously. And to her great surprise, he opens his arms a little awkwardly.

He flushes under her look, keeping his arms absurdly open. “I know, I know, luv, a gangly thing like me giving a hug, but you humans seem to respond to them. At least that’s what my notes say. So… how about it?”

She shouldn’t smirk, he’s trying to help, but how could she not? Wheatley was absolutely ridiculous; she hadn’t been comforted by hugs since she was a little girl, and it wouldn’t work now.

No, she wasn’t the least bit sleepy, and Wheatley’s body, warmed by his mechanical parts, wasn’t inviting at all. She definitely wasn’t adjusting under the blanket to lay on him, letting his arms wrap around her surprisingly securely as he tugs the blanket over her shoulders. She doesn’t feel him nuzzle the top of her head, and she definitely doesn’t snuggle closer as he whispers “I’ll protect you, luv. I swear.”

There’s most certainly not a smile on her lips as she shuts her eyes, a soft, Aperture friendly, familiar lullaby playing from the software in Wheatley’s chest and carrying her into a dreamless sleep.


End file.
